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Perhaps Steve Miller said it best; “I’m a picker, I’m a grinner, I’m a lover and I’m a sinner.” I’ve called North Dakota and Minnesota home for most of my life, living only one of my 48 outside these two states. It may certainly be that living in the frozen north and so close to Canada that a few brain cells become crystallized. On the other hand, as nature regularly tries to kill us here, we in the northern climes become accustomed to trials and hardships as a way of life. Yet somehow we survive and thrive in a beautiful land filled with a variety of beautiful people.

Serving now over 20 years as a parish pastor leads me into strange and wonderful experiences, none of which I could imagine in younger days. Indeed, when my intentions to enter seminary became known, more than a few chuckles, snickers and skeptics made themselves heard, “Him? Yeah, right!” God, however, maintains a healthy sense of humor and uses all manner of broken and wonderful human beings.

Grace is a tremendous-yet-hard-to-grasp experience. Definitions and descriptions are fine; the experience is the only thing which grants an individual true knowledge of unearned love. My own brokenness, as is everyone’s, comes both from my own doing as well as outside forces. When we find ourselves in need of grace it really doesn’t matter the source of the crap we’re in, at least not when it comes to the need. Identifying the source may be helpful in resolution, but not in the need nor the worthiness of the individual. We’re all in need, and it can be life changing; for a moment, for a day, for a lifetime.

The pages of this blog will explore this radical experience. Thanks for checking it out.